The Postmaster General should be fired. The Congress needs to block these cuts and closures. The President should issue an executive order,” said Jamie Partridge, a retired letter carrier and west coast organizer with Communities and Postal Workers United, in response to the announcement that Saturday delivery would end in August. The CPWU is calling for a national day of action, on March 17th, to save the postal service, opposing all closures, cuts and delay of mail.
Cutting delivery to five days will eliminate 25,000 jobs, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers. The US Postal Service has already cut 168,000 jobs since 2006 and projects the out-sourcing of most postal trucking, closure of 30% of mail processing plants and hundreds of post offices by June, cutting another 100,000 jobs and slowing delivery standards .
“We will not stand by as our beloved postal service is destroyed,” said Tom Dodge, a postal truck driver and east coast CPWU organizer. “We urge all Americans who care about our constitutionally mandated postal service to organize dramatic actions on March 17th, the anniversary of the great postal strike of 1970. We must increase the pressure and turn up the heat on the decision makers.” The CPWU, a grassroots network of coalitions in twenty cities, staged several sensational actions in the past year, including post office occupations, hunger strikes, marches and rallies. They are urging the postal unions to call for a “March on Washington” to save the postal service.
“Not the internet, not private competition, not labor costs, not the recession – Congress is responsible for sending the postal service into a death spiral,” said Partridge. “Corporate interests, working through their friends in the legislative and executive branches, want to undermine the USPS, bust the unions then privatize it.”
According to CPWU, a 2006 Congressional mandate, which forces the postal service to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance, is bankrupting the service. Not only would the postal service have been profitable without the mandate, says CPWU, the USPS has also overpaid tens of billions into two pension funds. The activists are calling for the Postmaster General to reverse the cuts and closures and allow Congress to fix the finances by repealing the pre-fund mandate and refunding the pension surplus.
The cowardly, lame duck session of 2006 that imposed this on the USPS and refused to list their names on the vote are to blame for this mess. For you Constitutionalists out there, the USPS is in Article One, Section 8. Taxpayer $$ do not pay for the USPS. No other entity in the USA has been asked to carry the burden of prefunding, 75 years in advance all retirement and healthcare. Imagine if tomorrow, when you got to work your employer asks you to prefund your retirement and healthcare 75 years in advance. I doubt there would be any money left over for your actual paycheck.
In the spirit of the 1970 strike? Who’s gonna walk out? You? Union lemmings? Give me a break and come up with answers instead of the BS you peddle. You are all part of the problem.
Corrections to last comment. CCAs don’t make 15-16K/hr, but $15-16/hr.
I am a recently retired letter carrier. As dear “writingonthewall” must know, I am now in the famous 1% due to the greed, laziness and unbelievable wages I have exhibited in the last 30 years. Unfortunately, due to last month’s arbitration decision, future career carriers will enter at $10,000 lower than present, and the 15-20% new category of City Carrier Assistants will work at 15K-16K/hr. for whatever hours are deemed necessary by the enlightened USPS managent. Still, one must admit that’s going to be a fortune. True, us 1%ers won’t invite them to party on our yachts and fly on our private jets and attend our swank social gatherings, but I’m sure they will make due in the top 2%.
Writingonthewall says the problem is letter carriers just wasting time. Some even are not working every second they’re in the field. OMG!! Well, despite this overwhelming scientific evidence, may I beg to differ.
–USPS management reports record productivity
–USPS management acknowledges 700,000 new delivery points a years and acknowledges that virtually all have been absorbed into present routes
–USPS management has an extensive policy to monitor routes, setting the exact time every delivery route should take, so as to eliminate as many as possible, though delivery points grow
–the “set-up” time in the office has been reduced to a minimum while the arduous field work has continually increased
So if you are looking for anything serious to back up your “lazy carrier” theory, you might consult management’s own reports, the management you claim is the victim.
Wah Wah Wah. This Donahue is no better than carvin Marvin Runyon .the postal service is a pawn to corporate welfare due to the discounts given to major mailers. If a major bank spends .31.9 cents to mail you a statement and you have to send the bank the same piece of paper back for .46 cents, the estimated cost of delivery, obviously someone’s making out on the deal. That’s why guys like senator carper are on the postal reform committee because he is from Delaware where most financial corporations have there headquarters. Until the major mailers pay their fair share of postage first class mail will continue to decline and idiots like the current pmg will play games and continue to help deteriorate the postal service. Picket lines will help but without the support of our so called national union leaders the death spiral will continue. The unions don’t have the funds to compete with major mailing lobbyists so more grass roots actions must be called for. Until we hit the streets in a postal revolution or occupy the post office the country will lose the greatest form of communication known to mankind.
The union along with management are one. There is really no difference between them where I work. It’s called you take care of me I’ll take care of you. The union is not as strong as it use to be. That to me is there own doing. It’s all about one for all and all for one. There is enough blame to go around from the management and union. Now change is coming and I hope for all of our sakes for the best. Pray
what do yo expect the PMG to do. He has been trying to get congress to act on the pre funding issue for years. this is the only way to get those Morons to act. The money isn’t going to fall from trees. where is the President whom Nalc endorsed? maybe he should get off the golf course and tend to the real issues in this country. he is more concerned about people who don’t belong here then the hard working people who pay taxes. the PMG in my opinion has done a hell of a job by avoiding lay offs thru this economic crisis. the blame isn’t on him. he is trying to keep a business running while the Gov. is stealing 5.5 billion a year from it. Get your freaking heads out of the sand. The Union will be the final straw that breaks the camels back and we will all be out of a job. and yes I’m in the union. if you are so unhappy with your work place quit or retire.
if they dont work they should be fired..we have to save this business not your union job this union is the downfall of this usps..
It is interesting to read the blogs. I challenge every USPS employee who applied for the job and hoped that they were hired to stand up for their company instead of criticize it. We should all stand together; management and craft because WE are the Postal Service The birth right and entitlement attitude is obsence. The strike of 1970 was for just cause. The current whining is just because….. Have you ever considered that the PMG is playing chicken with Congress? The villan is not Donahoe. It is the inept 112th Congress that spent more time campaigning than actually fixing what is wrong in the country and the Postal Service; like pre-funding retirees who have not been born yet let alone hired. Hopefully, the elected officials pull their heads out and find a way to save the Postal Service, a National Treasure.
all postal workers should not work one day 17 march.because it has been broken by managment.
Yet you seem to like the pay and benefits you get. Go to the back of the bus you cry baby.
I didn’t know that the unions were the employer in the Post Office enufisenuf!
Who hired you? The PO or the union?
The unions don’t give a fat rat’s ass about impact to the public…only the impact to their coffers and cushy lifestyles. None of these union big whigs will ever be returning to the workroom floor to work. They have golden parachutes and exclusive retirement packages from the union that was paid for by dues collected from lemmings…so they will double and (if they have social security) triple dip. The ordinary lemming who is not a union career official gets the boot. While usps staffing has gone down, union official staffing has remained the same or increased. How is that? Ask your postal union today about their exclusive retirement plans paid for by your dues. Do it today…you’ll see that it’s a touchy subject.
Don’t you dare insult the strike of 1970. Those employees back then had worked for little pay and had strong work ethics. They got there just dues. If it were not for them postal workers today would not be making the huge salaries they make. The Unions were better and smarter back then. Today your GREED has ruined this company. How many of you stay out on the street hiding for more overtime instead of having integrity and getting back help save your jobs. The Unions of today have ruined this country and USPS is the next HOSTESS.